DescriptionThey have 12 transverse bands on the back, the stiff, long fur being grey-brown. The tail tip and paws are black.

BehaviourDirunal species which forms packs of 5-40 members with about 3-4 breeding pairs and their offspring. They mark territories with cheek gland secretions, whitish anal gland secretions and with communal dung and urine middens.

ReproductionBreed all year. Females in the pack tend to synchronise breeding. 1-5 cubs are born after a gestation period of 60 days, weighing 60g each. They are born in a shelter. They are blind at birth and barely furred, eyes opening at 8-10 days. At 6 weeks, adult colouration is attained.

I have had the honour of raising two babies last year December at the wildlife rehabilitation centre I volunteer at. They are quite interesting animals with the chrips and "mongoose talk".

I can tell you for the orphaned mongooses they became wild on their own and their instincts well intact. We had to place an injured Long Crested Eagle in a holding cage in the same room as our mongoose cage. The mongooses could not see the eagle (as its cage was covered to minimize stress) but they knew it was there and was in hiding all the time it was there. Also to see how well develop their instincts are was to give them a chicken egg to see if they know how to break it open and the bigger ones knew (they roll it with their front paws backwards to a hard surface like a rock and then "throw" it so that it breaks open) and of course the little ones kept an close eye on it.

The last time I saw a family of Banned Mongooses was up at the Phalaborwa gate area when I was last in Kruger.

Can anyone help us out with this at all please. Initially when we were there we were told they are Black Footed Cats since I have checked them online when getting back I'm not sure. They were a long way off and spotted at a water source at the eastern end of the S100 at the beginning of April.

Looking at the pictures now the stripes look a little like banded Mongoose but these were huge animals compared to a Mongoose.

Love watching these animals, we had about 4 or 5 we followed for about 10-15 minutes near Skukuza in October. They we ere very nervous of us to begin with but over time came used to us being there, I was surprised but just how big and sharp there claws were as I hadn't seen them before.